


The Team of Rivals

by rvst



Series: Neither Birds Nor Prey [4]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/F, Gen, Role Reversal, Trope Bingo Round 3, fork in the road
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-25
Updated: 2014-12-26
Packaged: 2018-02-22 12:37:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2508071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rvst/pseuds/rvst
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Helena wants to kill her,” Sara threw out, “she thinks Cain is an assassin.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Choice

Sara ignored Helena's groaning and moaning in front of the bank of computer screens. She also took no notice of Felicity's voice coming through the communication system. Neither of them were in immediate danger as far as Sara could tell and Helena was actively milking her minor stab wound. They'd shown an appropriate level of terse co-worker sympathy and that should have been enough, Sara wasn't whining endlessly about the long wound along her arm, and that was going to leave a permanently visible scar.

She flexed her wounded arm muscles, preparing herself for the pain she was about to put herself through. She placed one foot on the lowest rung of their ladder to the rooftop, and stretched upwards. After a stifling week cooped up in the clock tower with only Helena for company while they recovered from their injuries, Sara desperately needed to be alone for a while.

While she instinctively favoured her injured arm, Sara managed to get all the way up the ladder and into the cold air of a Starling City night. The stars were completely invisible, blotted out by light pollution and a patchy cloud cover. She inhaled deeply, savouring the wet smell of recent rain mixed with a city worth of smog. It reminded her of her father and her sister, and crowded out the painful memories of her past.

She found one of the skylights, and sat on the edge, stretching her legs out and leaning back against the glass. Sara closed her eyes, and kept them close when she heard a pair of boots land on the other side of the rooftop. She heard a helicopter fly away from the clock tower, berating herself internally for not noticing it before the person landing drew her attention to it. The soft yet audible click of heels against the tiled rooftop felt familiar to Sara, so she pretended to be dozing.

If they meant her harm, letting them get close would be her best bet. While there was a small knife tucked away in her boot, it would be of little use to her if the intruder saw her draw it. They might be looking to take her in alive after all.

“I could have killed you,” said the owner of the heels. Sara relaxed and let out a breath of laughter.

“Pretty sure you'd get in all kinds of trouble if you do that,” she responded, cracking open an eye. Nyssa rolled her eyes and gave up on her stealthy footing, choosing instead to clomp over and collapse next to Sara. “Make yourself at home.”

“I have had a long day, please be reasonable,” Nyssa started, tentatively covering Sara's hand with her own. “I have a request for you and your,” she paused, “friends? Co-workers?”

“Leading suggestion is 'team of rivals'.” Nyssa considered this and hummed in agreement. “What's your request, League business?” Nyssa's hand clutched her own tightly. “Not League business then.”

“No, much more personal than that. How's your arm?” Nyssa asked, grabbing at the limb with concern. Sara let her, relishing in the joy of being fussed over, without the yelling that Felicity's fussing usually came with.

“What does my arm have to do with whatever you're here for?” Nyssa checked over her wound for what seemed like an eternity. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair.

“I ask out of concern and to ensure that your 'team of rivals' don't seek retribution for this attack.”

Sara frowned in thought. “How can we 'seek retribution' when we don't know who did it?”

Nyssa reached into her coat to pull out a wallet, she opened it and pointed to a picture in one of the plastic windows. Sara leaned closer for a better look. The image showed a little girl who couldn't have been more than ten facing Nyssa in one of what Sara recognised as a League training room.

“You beat up a kid?” Sara exclaimed incredulously, ramming her shoulder into Nyssa's. “Monster.”

Nyssa grinned broadly, “she nearly won actually. This was taken five years ago. She disappeared late last year and I've been searching for her ever since.”

“I've never seen her before,” Sara wondered absently out loud.

“She was trained privately by her father, and my father allowed it because David promised him the girl would be the best. Most of the League believes she doesn't exist.”

“You think a teenager took out twelve armed men and Helena and me?” Sara nearly laughed in Nyssa's face until she caught sight of the seriousness etched into her face. A memory presented itself, all humour left Sara's heart. “You don't mean David Cain, do you?”

Nyssa winced, terror clutched at Sara's nerves. “He's one of the best-”

“He's insane, Nyssa! And a kid raised by him? Is probably insane too,” ranted Sara. She stopped still, another memory presenting itself, slightly less creepy but still not great. “Her name wouldn't happen to be Cassandra, would it?”

“Why did I bother coming?” Nyssa asked herself, shaking her head and moving to leave. Sara refused to relinquish her hold on Nyssa's hand and used her lower position to drag the other woman back down. “Well if you already know everything!”

“I don't know what that has to do with my-”

“The attack last week,” Nyssa said, effectively shutting Sara up, “I am almost certain that Cassandra carried it out.”

Sara looked back down at the picture, trying to imagine a teenager taking out fourteen people from a distance, and came up blank. “Why would she hire men to stop us and attack if she was just going to incapacitate them herself?”

“I don't believe that she was behind your would-be murderers, I think she took them out,” elaborated Nyssa, running her free hand along Sara's arm reassuringly. “So I ask again: could you convince your 'team of rivals' to be lenient on her?”

“Because she's a kid?”

“David Cain named myself and my sister as Cassandra's legal guardians if something were to happen to him, I ask as her guardian.”

“And if we don't?”

“I didn't come here to threaten you, Sara. I came to ask, nicely,” Nyssa asserted. She disentangled herself from Sara, standing with her hands on her hips and her face neutral. Sara stood, pulling the knife from her boot as she did so. They remained in silence, staring, waiting for the other woman to back down. Sara lost, taking a few deep breaths to release as much stress as possible.

“And if we don't?” Sara repeated. “What do you plan on doing if we refuse to let her go free after what she did?”

“If you agree, then I will do whatever I can to stop Cassandra and whatever she thinks she's doing,” started Nyssa, “if you don't then my sister will take over, and I cannot guarantee that her methods will not have casualties.”

“Helena wants to kill her,” Sara threw out, “she thinks Cain is an assassin.”

“Not officially, she isn't. And we don't think she's actually killed anyone else yet.” Nyssa held her hands up in surrender, her eyes wide in shock.

“'Else', Nyssa? What do you mean by else?” Sara restrained herself from pushing her ex and another more powerful urge to instead slap her stupid face. “How many people has this kid killed?”

“One that we can confirm and her father-”

“Nyssa!” Sara screamed. The instinct in the back of her mind whispered that Helena not investigating was suspicious. “Our research into her indicated that the kid can't speak!”

Nyssa worried her bottom lip between her teeth. “David is not the best parent.”

“Not the-” Sara broke off the cry out in anger. “He taught his kid how to kill but not basic fucking language skills.” She pulled roughly through her hair, starting to pace restlessly. Nyssa swallowed hard, Sara tried not to be distracted by her neck. She calmed herself enough to speak at a regular human volume, “and I might have to admit to being wrong to Helena fucking Bertinelli.”

Nyssa fought back a bark of laughter. “You didn't wish to kill her?”

“I didn't want to kill another member of the League, her style fit our profile and now I know why!” Nyssa winced as yelling Sara returned. “You're staying?”

Nyssa actually blushed, Sara internally revelled in the feeling of causing that, and answered, “until Cassandra's brought to heel.”

“So a while then?”

“She's very well trained and will resist everyone around her, up to and including her father,” Nyssa explained, taking a tiny, shuffling step towards Sara. “I may need to stay for many weeks.”

“Oliver is going to love that,” Sara said. She took a more deliberate step closer. “Do you have somewhere to stay?”

“The League keeps a small apartment in the city, mostly to keep track of you.”

“Where?” Sara pushed, getting right up in Nyssa's face. Nyssa waved vaguely at several high-rise apartment buildings. “How specific.”

“You expect trust, yet you have a knife ready to fight me.” Sara hastily tucked the weapon back into her boot.

“We'll back off if you keep us in the loop,” offered Sara. Nyssa held out her hand to shake on it. “Really?”

“Oh, absolutely.” Sara grasped at her hand, shaking lightly and ignoring whatever the hell Helena was yelling about.

“Shouldn't you?” Nyssa used her free hand to point at the open hatch the shouting was coming through. Sara sighed and released Nyssa's hand.

“Come on.” Sara motioned for Nyssa to follow her. “I'll drive you back to,” Sara stopped to wave her arm over most of the city, “the general area of your base.”

“You just want help dealing with the Huntress,” mocked Nyssa, but following anyway.

“All the help I can get.”


	2. The Wrong Choice

Helena dragged herself from her bunk at the clock tower, holding in a moan at the sharp lance of pain in her right shoulder. Whoever the hell saved then attacked her was going to suffer a slow and painful death. Who in their right mind would throw bat-shaped projectiles at a person?

She stewed in her rage while she made herself coffee. Despite sleeping in until mid-afternoon, coffee made Helena feel like her days began like a normal person's would. Caffeine and baked goods, the perfect combination for breakfast/afternoon tea. Helena cast her eyes around the room, searching for something to occupy herself with that didn't involve aggravating her wound. Her options were limited, Felicity turned the clock tower into a damn gym from hell during her renovations. With her own computer bank set-up for when she got sick of Oliver, Roy, and Diggle.

The computers, Helena noted with a cautious optimism, which probably had something entertaining on them. At the very least she could start tracking down their mystery bat-person.

Someone had to have seen something right?

Four hours, a migraine, and over one thousand eyewitness statements to the 'gang related shoot-out' later and Helena was more than ready to go back to bed. Besides, her shoulder seriously hurt.

She stared out one of the expansive windows, absently rubbing at the dull throbbing of pain plaguing her whole right arm. The superficial calm of night in Starling City kept her attention for several minutes. An unholy mixture of a caw and a chirp blasted out of the computer's sound system, accompanied by large red letters that stated 'Felicity Calling'.

Helena spotted the big red button actually labelled 'Answer Call' and pressed it while vowing to set Felicity straight about how tech-savy she is.

Felicity's face appeared on the central screen and Helena's heart gave a happy jolt. Felicity waved, despite the sound of gunfire also coming through the speakers.

“Having fun with Flash?” Helena couldn't stop the smirk on her face, or the groan of pain that boiled up from her chest as she pulled herself closer to the desk. “I don't appreciate whatever the ring tone is by the way.”

Felicity seemed to be ducked down behind a car, she flattened herself against it as a chunk of ice blasted through the windows. “Oh yeah, miles of fun!”

“Not that we don't love hearing from you, but you are a little outside our range, sweetie,” Helena said smoothly, trying to keep the worry out of her voice.

The street around Felicity went silent. She spent several seconds going through the calming techniques Sara taught her. Helena thought she had magic people summoning powers for a moment as Sara returned from wherever she went during daylight hours. Helena pointedly didn't watch the blonde woman as she ignored Helena and went straight for the ladder to the rooftop.

“Where's she going?” Felicity asked. The noises of the battle going on around her returned with gusto, bits of shrapnel going flying behind her.

“To brood, probably. Back to the important question: why are you calling?” Helena tried a reassuring smile, Felicity visibly paled.

“No one's answering at the Arrow Cave and the Flash's team are busy dealing with him and I need help!” Felicity forced out all in one breath.

“With?”

“I'm going to do something stupid and dangerous and reckless, so I need you to help me get inside you,” explained Felicity before the colour re-appeared on her face. “Not, 'inside' you, I mean to help me be one with-No, not better!”

“What are you going to do?” Helena kept her voice even and pretended that she wasn't blushing. She'd been warned more than once about the tangents Felicity's mouth went on without her brain being in on it, but to see it in action was a thing of beauty.

“This part of the city has tunnels underneath it, I need you to find me a map to get from this shop,” she stopped and turned the camera on her phone around so Helena could see the unassuming pawn shop, “to behind them.”

Felicity lifted the phone up as high as she could and Helena was treated with a view of a man in a ridiculous parka and goggles surrounded by what could only be described as two-bit criminals firing randomly around the street.

“Where's the Flash?”

“Captain Cold got to him, and his me!” Felicity shouted. The video feed spun around wildly, and Helena had to look away or she'd be sick. “I should be okay in here for a while.”

“What do they want?”

“I want to say they're a distraction but Captain Cold doesn't seem like the delegating kind of guy.” Felicity hid behind the counter of the abandoned shop and pulled something out of her purse. Something that Helena recognised and had been looking for the last three days. “I borrowed this and I need you to show me how to reload it.”

Helena couldn't figure out exactly how Felicity had found quite possibly the most dangerous weapon she owned. It made sense, for someone untrained in weapons, the smaller ones are usually the most accessible. A comparatively tiny crossbow would absolutely appeal to someone like Felicity.

“You haven't hit anyone with that, have you?” Helena ventured, her calm and even voice gone in favour of strangled worry. Felicity stilled. She dropped the crossbow. “Felicity?”

“No, I missed. Why do you ask?” Felicity's voice wavered with fear and trepidation. Her eyes narrowed at the offensive weapon. “What's wrong with it?”

“Nothing,” Helena squeaked. “The bolts are somewhat poisonous.”

Felicity froze again. “How poisonous?”

“A little bit?” Helena tried to remain calm, while sparing a confused glance towards the skylight. There was a shadow that wasn't Sara-sized and Helena's heart jumped in fear. There wasn't any crashing or yelling so Helena reigned in her desire to fly up the ladder to Sara's aid. “It's treatable, but don't get any of it on yourself, it hurts like a bitch.”

“Poisons aren't legal!”

Helena stopped for a second, allowing Felicity the time to notice what she'd said. “Get it?”

“Not fatal?”

“Not fatal, though exactly as illegal as everything else we do,” Helena explained while watching the colour drain from Felicity's face. “You-”

“Got some on me? Yeah,” Felicity responded though her voice sounded like she was a thousand miles away and strongly considering a vacation in the very near future. “I thought I got shot.”

Helena shook her head, banishing the worry. “No, just a bit of poison. You'll be fine as long as it doesn't get into your blood.”

Helena typed slowly as she spoke, searching for cures to her poison that Felicity could probably find in her immediate area. She brought up the city public records on a different screen, multitasking with more effort than she allowed herself to show. Felicity seemed to notice anyway and remained silent aside from the occasional whimper as glass continued to shatter around her.

The schematics took longer than Helena would have liked to pull up. She had no clue how Felicity managed to do this kind of thing in seconds. Felicity examined the crossbow and the bolts she'd taken with her. She couldn't see the poison on them and if it wasn't for the dull ache in her right hand, she would not have believed that there was a toxic substance flowing over her skin.

The pain subsided with every passing moment that Helena was silent on the other end of the line. Felicity chanced a glance down from her view of the attacking men. Helena's entire face was scrunched up with concentration or possibly confusion.

“Helena?” Felicity ventured. The fear crept into her voice without her permission.

Helena's eyes snapped to the camera, the confusion gone, replaced with her general grim determination. “Schematics are hard,” she admitted with a forced grin. Felicity visibly calmed down, and Helena went straight back to her mounting panic. She couldn't see a way out for Felicity to take, the tunnel wasn't big enough for a person, let alone one that had to rush through to escape men with guns. The ones Felicity spoke of were several feet beneath solid concrete, and inaccessible unless you had some pretty heavy duty materials to break through.

Felicity would have to fight her way out.

“Sweetie, you're going to have to run for it,” Helena put on her most soothing voice, which only seemed to unnerve Felicity further. She glared at Helena through the phone and started to argue. “Captain Cold, stupid name by the way, wants into the tunnels, all you'd be doing is giving him an entry point.”

Felicity's chest heaved up and down, panic fully setting in. Helena swore under her breath, Felicity would have to stay calm and steady to get away cleanly.

“The men will recover if they're taken to a hospital, I promise,” lie, “show me the footpath again, I thought I saw something,” another lie. Felicity complied though her hand was shaking, she audibly slapped her free hand around her wrist to steady the camera. Helena breathed a sigh of relief, maybe she wasn't lying and Felicity might survive. “That's good, give me a second.”

Helena brought the city map up again and added a filter to the file. Felicity was next to an access point for the subway system, it wasn't perfect and she might get smashed to pieces by a train, but it was better than sitting there and waiting to die.

“You need to get into that hole, it should be easy to open, safety regulations,” Helena rushed out, buying herself time to fully consider a plan for the men in the street. They were obviously stalling, drawing attention to the bank they were in front of so Captain Cold himself could sneak away and get a score bigger than money. Access.

“Without them noticing?” Felicity asked, her high-pitched voice causing Helena to wince. “How in the hell-”

“You need to hit one of the guys on the edge, if you hit him, the screams will distract everyone else,” Helena explained, praying silently that the men were no more than two-bit criminals. Any training whatsoever and they would keep their attention where it was supposed to be, on Felicity's general direction. 

For a heart-stopping moment, Felicity looked like she was going to argue the point. Helena crossed her fingers and let out a breath she didn't know she was holding as Felicity silently held up the unloaded crossbow. Helena quickly talked her through reloading and tried to be encouraging as Felicity drew her courage together.

The shot hit home. One of the men gave an unholy cry as the picture coming through the feed went wild. Helena heard the access point scrape open, just wide enough for Felicity's small body to slip through. Helena thanked whoever she prayed to when the camera went dark.

Rumbling emanated from the speakers in front of Helena, interspersed with Felicity's short, sharp intakes of breath. “Helena?”

“Yeah?”

“I don't think this is a safe place to be,” admitted Felicity, though through the darkness Helena couldn't see why. “I can hear men drilling below me.”

That explained the rumbling. Helena bought up their contact list, searching for the Flash's friends. They might be busy, but they needed to know that Captain Cold was close to whatever he was after.

“Just stay where you are, okay?”

Felicity didn't have a chance to respond. The beginnings of an explosion nearly blew out the speakers and the connection went dead.

Helena was on her feet and screaming uselessly at the blank screens before her.

Her hands scrambled to dial anyone, literally anyone who was in the area. Surely someone was available, they had to be.

“Helena?” The fearsome Huntress jumped a foot in the air and spun around to see Sara descending the ladder from the roof. She was followed by a woman clad in what Helena recognised to be League attire. Sara didn't seem worried about her, so Helena kept her panic centred on the crisis at hand. “What happened?”

“Felicity-”

Helena was cut off by the racket Felicity set as their ring tone. With a shaking hand, Helena hit the button to answer the call. No video popped up, but the call was absolutely from Felicity's phone.

“Hello? What the heck is a 'Birds of Scary'?”

Sara and Helena exchanged a glance of confusion at the male voice. The assassin woman's head perked up in recognition.

“Mr Allen?” Sara's head snapped quickly between her companion and the computer bank. “Do you have Ms Smoak?”

“Scary assassin lady!” Mr Allen yelped, “yes I have Felicity, she's out of it, but alive!”

“Why do you know who the Flash is?” Sara questioned her companion. The woman shrugged and smirked mysteriously.

“Not important,” she answered. Helena let the woman have her secrets.

“You've got her techie?” Helena demanded to know. Despite being the fastest man alive, Barry Allen was terrified of her, though she honestly didn't know why. “And the guy with the stupid name?”

“No, Captain Cold escaped through the tunnels, he took a whole mess of diamonds with him.”

Satisfied, Helena made Flash promise many updates before ending the call. She turned to her partner.

“Who the hell is this?”

Sara redistributed her weight from one foot to the other, and opened her mouth to start speaking a few times. Eventually words sprung forth, “this is Nyssa, she's going to help deal with out Cain problem.”

Helena smiled.


End file.
